In its ongoing effort to be open and transparent, the City of Fort Collins introduces its new Email Transparency Project.
Starting July 21, most emails to and from City Council will be available to the public at fcgov.com/council. Under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) all emails to and from City Council are subject to public disclosure, with limited exceptions. “Restricted” emails will generally be those that, by law, may be kept confidential. Examples include attorney-client communications and emails containing proprietary business information or confidential tax or utility customer information.
City councilmembers want to be as transparent as possible to the community they serve about how City business is transacted and City decisions are reached, so they are voluntarily making these emails available for online viewing.
Recognizing that some emails to councilmembers may contain sensitive material, senders can put #PRIVATE in the subject line of the email to keep them from appearing in the archive. However, the City of Fort Collins can’t guarantee that email to or from Councilmembers marked “#PRIVATE” will remain private under CORA.
“As part of the City’s continuous improvement and ongoing goal to build trust with the community, we are making Council emails easily accessible to the public,” said Darin Atteberry, Fort Collins City Manager. “Transparency is an essential cornerstone of government, and we want to make it easy for people to see what is going on.”